Volga Automobile Works

(VAZ), the largest enterprise of the USSR motor vehicle industry engaged in passenger car production. Located in the city of Togliatti (Tol’iatti), Kuibyshev Oblast. Designed for the production of 660,000 cars a year.

Plant construction began on Jan. 9, 1967. The first production line, which was designed for the manufacture of 220,000 cars a year, was put into operation on Mar. 24, 1971 (for the Twenty-fourth Congress of the CPSU). The plant will manufacture the VAZ-2102 Zhiguli car (based on the Fiat 124), which is a five-passenger compact car with a small-displacement 62-hp engine and a maximum speed of 140 km/hr. Iron and steel castings, aluminum moldings, drop forgings and cold stampings, metal ceramic products, engines, chassis, bodies and other units, various instruments, tooling, and special equipment are made at the Volga Automobile Works, and the motor vehicle is assembled there. The plant is noted for the high level of its technical equipment, the comprehensive mechanization and automation of basic and auxiliary production processes, and the use of advanced technology. The production control system is also being automated. A city of auto workers, designed according to modern urban planning requirements, is growing along with the industrial complex.